Day 278 – Forss to Castletown 19 miles 1636’ascent

Monday 22nd May 2023

Unfortunately Jill was going to find today’s walk quite difficult given she now had to walk on quite a large, painful blister. I put a Compeed on it for her last night and she contrived a padded dressing that reduced the friction as she walked. For all the problems Jill has with finding comfortable footwear, this was probably the first significant blister either of us have had during the entire walk. I was happy to rollover the four miles we had in hand from the last 48 hours but I was very doubtful about extending the walk to Castletown as Jill suggested.

We left the car at the Forss Industrial Estate junction and set off. It was quite chilly though the forecast suggested we should get sunshine later.

The Technology Park seemed extremely quiet and what activity there was seemed to belong to “yesterday”. We walked through the wind farm next to the park and along the coast to St Mary’s Chapel.

There was a a slight complicated fence we needed to negotiate but then we were on the path that leads back to the road at Crosskirk from the chapel.

Having crossed the bridge over the River Forss, we headed across to the coast and found a narrow path heading along the low cliffs. We were able to follow this quite readily and had views of the cliffs alongside us.

There was one barbed-wire fence to negotiate. The top strand was quite taught but, putting our piece of pipe insulation over it, we were soon across it.

The walk along the coast was interesting because we were in flagstone country. The cliffs comprise layers of sedimentary rock which splits off into flagstones very readily hence they are used for fences as well as flooring and roofs. The waves crash over the flat ledges leaving a white film as they recede.

Jill was, as usual, taking note of the wild flowers where we were walking. She had paused to take photos of some small purple flowers that she wanted to identify later, and I was too far ahead to realise she had become quite engrossed in the vegetation. She had noticed some tiny primula-like flowers, not much more than 1″ in height and with greyish whorl of leaves at the base of the stem and a cluster of miniature, pink/purple flowers with white and yellow centres. She had never seen them before and they were confined to just a few square yards of the turf. On researching them later, she discovered they were Scottish primrose, a plant that grows only on the coast of Orkney, Sutherland and Caithness. This was something special indeed. If you are interested, follow this link.

At Brims Ness there is another chapel, remains of, but in fact there is little more than a few gravestones. We had a fairly easy walk to Mains of Brims which is a derelict farm.

Here we walked up the road for a 200-300 yards and then took a track back to the cliffs. From here the walking just got better and better. Generally we had turf underfoot which was easier walking for Jill and elsewhere there was a good deal of flagstone which is good to walk on.

We walked past a series of high cliffs, rock stacks and geos and the Atlantic swell  supplied a steady stream of waves, foaming as they broke and smashed against the cliffs.

The cliffs were hosts to fulmars, kittiwakes, razorbills and gulls and the occasional shag.

Near Brims Hill there an impressive quarry from which flagstones were quarried. Indeed the cliffs look exactly like stacks of flagstones. We did encounter one or two fences; generally there was a gate but sometimes inconveniently tied with rope at the top and bottom.

We had coffee, sat on a grassy ledge overlooking a geo and watched the birds.

Continuing along the cliff we came to a fence and walked along the outside of it. We might have been happier if it was not quite so close to the edge at one or two points where slabs have been placed to make it safer. We were glad we were not carrying larger rucksacks which would have risked snagging on the barbed wire.

We came to Holborn Head where the coast turns south to Thurso. Here there is a hole in the ground probably 15′ by 6′ – a narrow blow hole which indeed appears to drop right down to the sea. We really didn’t want to get close enough to the edge to see down but we could hear the sea at the bottom of it. There were no substantial ledges down its almost vertical sides and, with nothing by way of post or fence to mark its presence, it seemed a very real hazard for a distracted walker despite being on part of the path that is well used by people walking from Scrabster a mile away.

We continued along the now well-worn path which the descends to the lighthouse at Scrabster.

We were quite late, having managed to while away a lot of time looking at geos and rock formations and bird-spotting. We called in at the cottage where we are staying since it is on route. We ate our lunch rolls quickly and Jill changed her socks, then did a quick car shuttle to set up the afternoon’s walk. Jill was still determined we should walk all the way to Castletown which would mean we would be a good seven miles ahead of the planned schedule.

Thurso is not a great place these days. The commercial areas are rather rundown, perhaps aggravated by closing down the nuclear facility at Dounreay. The old town is built on a grid structure similar to many Scottish towns built as planned development in the 19th century. The history of Thurso as a settlement goes back about 5000 years but it became a notable trading town under Norse rule in the Middle Ages.

We walked across the pedestrian bridge over the River Thurso and walked along the coast path past the remains of Thurso Castle of which there have been several reincarnations. What remains are the Gothic constructs of the Georgian and Victorian eras.

It was an easy coast walk between fence and the edge of the low cliffs.

We arrived at Murkle Bay and the tide was out and so we walked straight across. It is curious that the there are the remains of WWII tank trap coastal defences because it seems a most unlikely location at which to attempt an invasion .

A path continued but stopped at a small stream and beyond was a fence with plastic piping over a barbed wire strand and electric fence strand which we crossed into a field. We crossed that field of sheep, then there was a double electric fence but electric appeared to be turned off.

We crossed the double electric fence into a field of steers to another fence and dry stone wall which looked difficult to cross. Halfway up the field was a real cat’s cradle of barbed wire metal sheep hurdles and a collapsed wall. We picked our way across this with care.

We crossed the next field but then came to a difficult fence and so we crossed an easier fence to the cliff side and, with some care and a little back-tracking, got down onto the beach.

It was then an easy walk most of the way to Castletown where we passed the harbour to get to a car park close to the beach where we had left a car.

I began to wonder if an individual was just trying to make a few bob out of it. I tried the email contact but got no response. On balance any competent walker should be able to work out their own route but it would still be useful to know about fences and other obstructions on the route.

We walked through the Castletown Heritage Centre where there a stone-built circular tower the purpose of which I have been unable to determine.